Principal Investigator(s):Rosenstone, Steven J., University of Michigan. Center for Political Studies; Kinder, Donald R., University of Michigan. Center for Political Studies; Miller, Warren E., University of Michigan. Center for Political Studies; National Election Studies. University of Michigan. Center for Political Studies

Summary:

This study is part of a time-series collection of national
surveys fielded continuously since 1952, designed to present data on
Americans' social backgrounds, enduring political predispositions,
social and political values, perceptions and evaluations of groups and
candidates, opinions on questions of public policy, and participation
in political life. The 1996 National Election Study contains both pre-
and post-election components. The Pre-Election Survey includes
interviews in whic... (more info)

This study is part of a time-series collection of national
surveys fielded continuously since 1952, designed to present data on
Americans' social backgrounds, enduring political predispositions,
social and political values, perceptions and evaluations of groups and
candidates, opinions on questions of public policy, and participation
in political life. The 1996 National Election Study contains both pre-
and post-election components. The Pre-Election Survey includes
interviews in which approximately 77 percent of the cases are
comprised of impanelled respondents first interviewed in either
AMERICAN NATIONAL ELECTION STUDY, 1992: PRE- AND POST-ELECTION SURVEY
[ENHANCED WITH 1990 AND 1991 DATA] (ICPSR 6067) or in AMERICAN
NATIONAL ELECTION STUDY, 1994: POST-ELECTION SURVEY [ENHANCED WITH
1992 AND 1993 DATA] (ICPSR 6507). The other 23 percent of the
pre-election cases are a freshly drawn cross-section sample. Of the
1,714 citizens interviewed during the pre-election stage, 1,534 (89.5
percent) also participated in the Post-Election Survey (1,197 of these
were panel cases and 337 were cross-section). The content of the 1996
Election Study reflects its dual function, both as the traditional
presidential election year time-series data collection and as a panel
study. Substantive themes presented in the 1996 questionnaires
included interest in topics such as political campaigns, evaluations
of the political parties, knowledge of and evaluation of presidential
and House candidates, political participation (including turnout in
the presidential primaries and in the November general election and
other forms of electoral campaign activity), and vote choice for
president, the United States House of Representatives, and the United
States Senate, including second choice for president. Additional items
focused on perceptions of personal and national economic well-being,
positions on social welfare issues like the role of government in the
provision of jobs and a good standard of living), positions on social
issues (including abortion, women's roles, and prayer in the schools),
racial and ethnic stereotypes, opinions on affirmative action,
attitudes toward immigrants, opinions about the nation's most
important problem, political predispositions, social altruism, social
connectedness, feeling thermometers on a wide range of political
figures and political groups, affinity with various social groups, and
detailed demographic information and measures of religious affiliation
and religiosity. Previous updates added a core battery of
campaign-related items in the pre-election wave to better understand
the dynamics of congressional campaigns, several questions related to
issue importance and uncertainty both in relation to respondents and
to candidates, an eight-minute module of questions developed by a
consortium of electoral scholars from 52 polities to facilitate
comparative analysis of political attitudes and voting behavior, and a
measure of exposure to entertainment programs as an indirect measure
of exposure to campaign advertisements. Additional items from previous
updates concerned social issues, the environment, like air quality and
the safety of drinking water, and the media. The fifth version of the
data adds an auxiliary file consisting of merged data on group
membership previously found in 1996 Pre-Post releases. In addition,
the documentation for variable V961454, included in both the new
Auxiliary file and in the 1996 Pre-Post file, was incorrect. The
variable information has been corrected in the codebooks and variable
labels for the Auxiliary File but not corrected in the 1996 Pre-Post
codebook or variable labels.

Universe:
All United States citizens of voting age on or before
November 5, 1996, residing in housing units other than on military
reservations in the 48 coterminous states.

Data Types:
survey data

Methodology

Sample:
National multistage area probability sample.

Mode of Data Collection:
face to face interview,
telephone interview

Version(s)

Original ICPSR Release:1997-04-30

Version History:

2005-05-23 Descriptive variables concerning group
membership have been added to this study as Part 2, Auxiliary File
With Group Membership Variables, and the documentation for variable
V961454 was corrected in the new file. The data are available in
additional file formats, and the codebook is now available as a PDF
file.

2000-04-18 Contextual variables have been added to
the data file. Data for this study are now available in SAS transport
and SPSS export formats in addition to the ASCII data file. Variables
in the dataset have been renumbered to the following format: 2-digit
(or 2-character) prefix + 4 digits + [optional] 1-character suffix.
The codebook and SAS and SPSS setup files have been revised to reflect
these changes and to incorporate changes previously noted in
errata. Column locations listed in the codebook appendix have been
updated. The Match File and Missing Value File (formerly Parts 2 and
3, for use with 2nd release data) are no longer being distributed.

1998-07-15 New time-series weights have been added
to this 3rd release of the collection as an alternative to the
time-series weights available in Release 2. There is now a new weight
for 1996 pre-election variables and a new weight for 1996
post-election variables. A stand-alone "match" file consisting of
three variables -- V960001, the 1996 case ID, and V960005A and
V960005B, the weight variables -- is provided as Part 2 of the
collection for users who wish to merge this information into 1996
files previously downloaded. Also, changes to some missing data codes
have been made for several variables (V961189-V961192), and are
included as Part 3 of the collection. The DK values have been restored
to these cases, as they previously were included as blank or NA
cases. In addition, the following lesser changes were made: One case
with an incorrect 1994 case ID has been corrected. Several variable
label corrections have been made. The Candidate List (Appendix G in
the 2nd release) has been renamed Appendix H. Appendix G is now the
full technical report for the additional weight variables. The CPS
two-digit Occupation Master Codes, which are required for the
occupation coding of the respondent's father, have been included with
the Appendix E set of 1996 Master Codes. (These Master Codes were
omitted in the codebook included with Release 2.) The codebook and SAS
and SPSS setup files have been revised to reflect these changes to the
collection.